The very best "positional" players who played 1.e4 all played the Open Sicilian as White. 

Ulf Andersson's opening repertoire as Black featured the Sicilian Taimanov/Paulsen (I get confused by the differences, in part because I've read Taimanov's books and Burgess' book on the Taimanov.)  The Taimanov Sicilian has the reputation of being one of the most strategic ("positional"?) of all Sicilian openings.

[quote]Is there any sicilian variation where black can castle kingside without having to face a kingside pawnstorm? And also has decent prospects to play for win.[/quote]
I've not seen the Kalashnikov Sicilian being assailed by a kingside pawn storm. Moreover, there's a new book on it due out soon from Forum member TonyRo!

Whenever I see somebody not named Petrosian proclaim that they are a positional player, I immediately presume they mean they don't like tactics and want to keep things as simple as possible. 

A true positional player will play gambits when the position requires it, and sac material for unbalanced pawn structures when the position requires it. 

So, a good positional player will play aggressively as White against the Sicilian. My recommendation for a positional player is to play the best lines and prove his positional superiority.

When the Iron Tiger played the Sicilian as White, he usually played the Open Sicilian. As Black, he usually played a Najdorf move order. 

Of course, he also had some famous Taimanov positions against Fischer in the Candidates' Final of 1971.

So 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 g6 isn't a Sicilian?
a) 5.c4 Nf6 6.Nc3 Bg7 7.Be3 Ng4 8.Qxg4 Nxd4 9.Qd1 e5
b) 5.Nc3 Bg7 6.Be3 Nf6 7.Bc4 Qa5 8.O-O O-O

Now before LostTactic becomes enthusiastic, the trade off is that White according to theory has excellent chances to prove a long lasting positional advantage - in both lines.

LostTactic wrote on 01/12/12 at 19:05:01:

Thís is the problem.
You are asking for a miracle cure.

No, not especially

But, if it matters, the kingside pawn storms in the various e5 set ups are much more about controlling d5 than actually mating black.

Really though if you're scared of facing sharp attacks the Sicillian really isn't the right opening for you.

I doubt that Larsen was refering to a particular variation, but rather to the Scandinavian in general.

In the unlikely case that you don't have access to that game, here are the first moves: 1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Qxd5 3.Nc3 Qa5 4.d4 Nf6 5.Bd2 Bg4 6.Be2 Bxe2 7.Ncxe2 Qb6 8.Nf3 Nbd7 9.0-0 e6 10.c4 Be7 11.b4 0-0 12.a4 c6 13.Qc2 Qc7 14.Rfe1 b6 15.a5 Rfb8, and here Larsen in his CI comments claims equality. Larsen won in 55 moves.

I don't know of any C-K variation that could be compared to this game, of course, the Capablanca often has an early exchange of white squared bishops and the other white B on d2, but the white h-pawn is still asleep.

My understanding of your initial post was that you want a change for those opponents who know the C-K part of your repertoire, and of course the Scandinavian would throw them out of their preparation. If you rather want a change for yourself, then some Sicilian variation is definitely the better choice.

Best regards,

Zwischenzugzwang

Quote:


But, as Larsen once said (it might have been after he had won against Karpov in Montreal 1979), the Scandinavian is an improved version of the Caro-Kann!